


(tempted) while he's touching your skin

by zadonis



Series: the brotherhood of yuta's traveling handcuffs [4]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, jealous!jungwoo, pining jungwoo too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 13:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14021613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zadonis/pseuds/zadonis
Summary: with everyone falling in love, jungwoo has his eyes set on lucas, but things rarely go perfectly to plan when handcuffs are involved





	(tempted) while he's touching your skin

**Author's Note:**

> again, the title is from a harry styles song (woman). thanks for coming and reading this series, it's been a lot of fun to write, but I honestly think I've exhausted all the (legal-aged) ships that I can write. I know that there are still a few members members left, but I just don't ship them in any combination at all really, so this is probably the end (unless y'all want me to write more about the couples already here) Enjoy!

Now more than ever before, fans claimed that NCT was kinky behind closed doors. Once the snippet from NCT’s Night Night started circulating online, their secret of the handcuffs was out. Any time members did a live show on V App there was at least a dozen comments asking about who was handcuffed to who that week. Some members could joke about it, but for some it was too sensitive of a topic to discuss.

Mark and Haechan spent three days cuffed together when Ten decided to play a joke, but then he misplaced the key. By the time Ten located the key on the third night, whatever tension there’d been between the two youngest members of NCT 127 was gone. No one was quite sure what had happened between them in those three days and no one asked.

In addition to that, the members were still adjusting to the new rooming situation. With all the couples now in the group, the roommates were rearranged. Winwin, Jungwoo, and Lucas ended up sharing a room now, and most of the time the three of them got along, but recently they’d begun butting heads over simple matters.

“Your bickering was cute at first,” Taeyong told them one day while they were at practice. “But it’s starting to get annoying. Figure it out before Doyoung decides who he’s cuffing to who next.”

Jungwoo didn’t think they were quite to that level of being annoying yet. Then again, ten minutes later, Lucas and Winwin were arguing in Chinese about something. Jungwoo stepped between them and curled his hand around Lucas’s neck, gripping the back of it tightly. “Taeyong hyung was right. We do fight often.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

A few days later, the 97-99 liners decided to do a live together. Right after practice, the sweat still drying on their skin, they piled together on a few chairs in front of a table. The other members were still drifting out of the room when the live started and the number of viewers started to tick up higher and higher. Before Doyoung left the room, he waved his phone at them, already showing that he was going to be watching them as Mark had teased him earlier for not watching a previous one where he’d talked about how amazing Doyoung was.

Jungwoo, exhausted from the practice, desiring a shower more than anything else, tried his best to put on a cheery face for the fans. It helped that they were complimenting his appearance, saying that they liked the way he looked with a cap on backwards, revealing his forehead. The fans were full of compliments and sweet wishes, but they couldn’t erase the exhaustion that dragged at his bones or the hunger that was starting to gnaw at his belly.

Therefore, when Winwin made a dumb joke at Jungwoo’s expense halfway through the live, Jungwoo snapped. He was quiet about it at first; he waited until Jaehyun dragged the attention away from Winwin with a story in reply to a fan’s question. Jungwoo turned to Winwin and began a heated, but quiet debate, which Winwin jumped into just as easily. Before long, their argument got louder, and Jaehyun’s arm casually slipped over Winwin’s shoulders, pulling him roughly into his side.

“Winwin-ah, do you have a story from behind the music video to share?”

From Jungwoo’s spot he could see the way Jaehyun’s fingers dug into Winwin’s shoulder. His eyes betrayed the calmness in his voice; his eyes flicked between the two of them, silently demanding that they stop arguing in front of the camera.

Winwin played along, brushing aside the argument to answer the question.

Jungwoo smiled and nodded, but inside he was still angry.

It wasn’t for another five minutes or so that the door to the practice room opened and someone slipped inside. Jungwoo glanced past the manager that was overseeing them to find Yuta striding into the room, making a clear shot to jump into the livestream with his bright, refreshing smile. Beside Jungwoo, Lucas waved, gesturing Yuta forward with a cry of “Yuta hyung!” that Jungwoo echoed.

Yuta high-fived Lucas, then leaned in so that he was visible on screen. “Everyone you get to witness something special today.”

Jungwoo shifted to make room for him, and Yuta slipped into the spot between him and Winwin. Their manager behind the camera frowned at Yuta, but Yuta just waved his hand and with the other reached for Winwin’s hand. There was nothing strange about that, so Jungwoo leaned forward, trying to read some of the quickly scrolling comments from viewers.

He had just opened his mouth to read off a comment about Yuta’s handsome appearance when he heard Winwin gasp in surprise. Before Jungwoo had the chance to turn, he felt the cold close of the handcuffs on his wrist. Slowly he looked down and found his wrist joined to Winwin’s by the handcuffs.

Lucas giggled on Jungwoo’s left, a high-pitched noise.

Yuta smiled, somehow evil and innocent all at once. Quickly, he pushed the chair back and stood up, lifting the new cuffed pair’s arms into view of the camera.

“Everyone, you just got to witness a live handcuffing!” He smiled brightly at the camera. Jungwoo was still speechless when Yuta turned to him a moment later. “Doyoung told me to do it. Have fun with the rest of this. Goodbye, everyone!” He waved at the camera and left its view. As soon as he was around the other side of the table, their manager pulled him toward the door, and whispered angrily at him.

Jungwoo slid his gaze back to the phone in front of him, the blur of comments and rising number of hearts. Jaehyun and Mark were quick to fill the silence, avoiding the topic of the handcuffs, their voices an incomprehensible buzz to Jungwoo’s ears. He felt the smile still pasted on his face, but he wasn’t really there anymore; his mind was stuck running over the fact that he’d just been thrown into punishment alongside Winwin while they were on a live broadcast.

And on top of that, it was Winwin he was cuffed to, and he knew that pretty much everyone that was cuffed together ended up in a romantic entanglement by the end of it. He likes Winwin, but—he finally slid his gaze sideways and met Lucas’s gaze—he’d have preferred being stuck with Lucas.

The last of his stupor faded away when he felt Lucas’s hand around his free wrist, fingernails scratching lightly over his skin. He raised his eyebrows in question, and Jungwoo nodded slightly. The other three were already chatting again, back to normal as if Yuta had never interrupted and nothing had changed. Beneath the table, Jungwoo couldn’t help playing with the chain. He was going to have some strong words with Doyoung at the dorm.

\- - -

There was absolutely nothing comfortable about trying to fit two tall, fully-grown boys into one bed meant for a regular-sized human. Jungwoo wasn’t sure how everyone else had done it, but he figured maybe the romantic feelings they’d all secretly harbored for one another had helped.

The first night, he found that he felt absolutely nothing like that toward Winwin. The older boy was all sharp angles and knobby knees that stabbed Jungwoo multiple times throughout the night, resulting in him waking in the morning to feel as if he’d barely slept. To top it all off, his wake up call was Winwin “accidentally” shoving him out of the bed, which twisted his arm rather uncomfortably.

Jungwoo shouted loud enough to wake Doyoung all the way on the other side of the dorm.

Lucas woke up in his bed, looking up from his pillow with messy hair, heavy eyes, and a pillow crease stretching from his forehead down to his chin. “Whassap?” He mumbled, eyes half closed even as he spotted Jungwoo on the floor and Winwin perched on the edge of the bed. In English he asked, “You okay, man?”

Jungwoo nodded. Lucas slumped back down into his pillow and was back asleep in seconds. Jungwoo envied him.

The door split open and several members piled inside. Johnny was at the forefront of the mess, quickly followed by Kun, Yuta, and Taeyong. Doyoung stood somewhere at the back of the pack, looking very displeased to have been woken up. Haechan peered around everyone’s shoulders, and he burst into laughter at the sight before him.

“Did you fall out of bed, hyung?” He laughed.

Jungwoo glared. “Winwin hyung pushed me. Can’t we be unlocked? We’ve learned our lesson; we won’t argue while broadcasting again.”

“We’re friends. We won’t argue anymore,” Winwin said from his position on the bed.

“None of us believe that.” Johnny stated bluntly. He turned to leave the room but paused long enough to say, “You’re lucky Ten talked Doyoung out of cuffing all three of you together.” He pointed his chin toward Lucas’s sleeping form. “They didn’t want to risk going without their second pair of cuffs.”

Jungwoo wished he didn’t know anything about Doyoung and Ten’s bedroom stuff, but it was difficult when they didn’t always make sure the dorm was empty, and neither did they always attempt to be quiet. Plus, everyone knew that they had a weird thing about the handcuffs, and Jungwoo could only assume that with as often as Doyoung used them on other members, he had a second pair to use on Ten. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to push those thoughts out of his mind.

As everyone left the room and disappeared back to their own rooms, Jungwoo finally pushed to his feet and climbed back into the bed.

Usually, he and Winwin were on good terms. It was only since becoming roommates that they’d really argued, but even then it wasn’t often. Winwin tended to argue more with Lucas.

Jungwoo didn’t like feeling angry with Winwin, so he decided to do what was best: apologize.

“I’m sorry,” he curled up on his side so that he was face-to-face with Winwin. “I shouldn’t have argued with you. I know you were only joking, but I was tired and hungry, so... yeah.”

Winwin nodded. “It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine because we’re stuck together now for a while, but I’m sure all you have to do is go ask Doyoung hyung to let us go, do aegyo, and he’ll do anything you ask.”

As if to prove his cuteness, Jungwoo smiled and held up his fingers in a heart. Winwin laughed and reached forward to grab the heart, but Jungwoo pulled it out of his reach. Winwin rolled forward, still reaching, and finally he caught Jungwoo’s hand, by which point he was laying halfway on top of Jungwoo.

“What’s going on here?” Lucas’s voice came from across the room. He was sitting up in his bed, watching them with narrowed eyes. Winwin rolled away. Jungwoo watched Lucas climb out of bed and walk over to them. He slept shirtless, and the sweatpants he wore were low enough to show off the band of his underwear. He rubbed at his bare stomach with one large hand.

Jungwoo felt like he swallowed his tongue, unable to form words.

Only when Lucas crawled onto the bed as well, somehow managing to climb over Jungwoo and squeeze into the small space between him and Winwin did Jungwoo find his tongue again. Lucas was the largest of the three of them, which meant that by laying between Jungwoo and Winwin he was actually halfway crushing both of them.

“Xuxi,” Jungwoo whined, shoving at Lucas’s arm. “Get off.”

“I want to be included too.” He said, shifting just enough that Jungwoo could pull his body out from beneath him, and in doing so he nearly rolled off the bed again. Lucas caught him and dragged him back into his side. “You both looked really comfortable over here.”

Winwin mumbled something that Jungwoo didn’t quite catch, but Lucas stroked over the side of Winwin’s face and cooed something at him in Chinese. Winwin squirmed and turned pink, trying to escape Lucas, but the weight of the youngest’s body combined with the handcuffs connecting him to Jungwoo prevented it.

Jungwoo groaned as the cuff dug into his skin.

Lucas wrestled playfully with Winwin, and Jungwoo tried his best to stay out of it (a difficult feat when he was chained to one of the contenders). When Lucas did eventually stop and climb off the bed, shaking with laughter, his grin so wide and bright that Jungwoo couldn’t look away, he wished again that he’d been cuffed to Lucas. He already missed the heat of him against his side.

Lucas laughed and looked down at Jungwoo. His eyes were so soft on Jungwoo, and he reached out to mess with his hair, as if Jungwoo was the younger. Jungwoo’s heart was a molten mess in his chest, pumping lava through his veins.

“We should go get ready,” Winwin muttered behind them. “We need to go to Doyoung hyung to get unlocked.”

Reluctantly, Jungwoo sat up, pulling away from Lucas’s touch.

Doyoung was still in his bedroom, and he didn’t argue as he uncuffed them so Winwin could go shower. Jungwoo lingered behind a moment, questions on the tip of his tongue, rolling the right words over in his mind until he could decide which ones would sound best. Doyoung was distracted by his phone, probably expecting Jungwoo to have left by now. But Jungwoo needed some answers, some advice.

“Why did you pick us?” Jungwoo asked, bending his wrist and checking over the redness to make sure there were no cuts. “Why not me and Lucas?”

“Would you have preferred being cuffed to Lucas?” Doyoung didn’t even look up from his phone.

Jungwoo sighed. “Probably. If the cuffs are what you all say they are.”

That got Doyoung’s attention. He slipped his phone out of sight, and devoted all of his attention to Jungwoo. “What do you mean by that?”

“You and all the other hyungs.” He tried his best to imitate Taeyong as he said, “They’re magical or something. Everyone who gets cuffed falls in love.”

Doyoung wrinkled his nose at the Taeyong impression. “That needs some work. But are you telling me you like Lucas? Why?”

“What do you mean _why?_ Why do you like Ten hyung?” He didn’t actually want an answer to that, but the sudden sparkle in Doyoung’s eyes had Jungwoo convinced he was about to hear the full on waterfall love-confession of emotions and mush. So he started talking again.

“Lucas can be so dumb,” Jungwoo whined. “But it’s, like, a loveable dumb, you know. And his brain-to-mouth filter is almost non-existent sometimes. And he likes to pretend he’s all macho and manly, but he cries just as easily at movies as any of us. Of course I like him. It’s Xuxi...Lucas,” His lips curled into a smile around the names. “He makes me laugh even when I’m sad or nervous. He tries to teach me other languages and calls me cute when I mess them up instead of getting angry. He’s my closest friend in NCT.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes. If Jungwoo didn’t know him so well, he’d have been hurt by that, but Doyoung quickly followed up by saying, “If you like him, then talk to him about it. I think it’s clear by now that no one here is going to judge you for liking him.”

Jungwoo sighed. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Just because I think he’s cute, and just because I want to make out with him and stuff doesn’t mean that I need to come out to him or whatever.” Jungwoo met Doyoung’s eyes and hoped that Doyoung could see the nervousness Jungwoo felt. “Right, hyung?”

Doyoung pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, going all serious. “Look, son....”

Jungwoo laughed, and Doyoung dropped the serious façade with a quick smile.

“Jungwoo, really, if you like him, tell him. Things may not always be easy as an idol who likes men—hell, we know it’s not easy being an idol even without any dating complications—but if you think he’ll make you happy, and you think he likes you back, then go for it.” Doyoung clasped Jungwoo’s hands in his. “Look what Ten and I did. We started all the members on their journeys to coming out and falling in love. As a group, I think we’re happier now than we were a few months ago, and it’s all because we’re finally being honest with each other. So go tell Lucas.”

He went in search of Lucas. The dorm was buzzing with morning life. Several members had taken over the kitchen, others fought over the bathrooms, some lingered noisily in their rooms and Jungwoo tried his best to avoid passing those closed doors. He found Lucas leaning against the doorway of one bathroom, the one Winwin was inside.

Winwin was in the midst of brushing his teeth and Lucas was babbling at him in Chinese, hands gesturing wildly, sleep still mussing his hair. It wasn’t fair that he could wake up looking so good. Jungwoo felt like a puffball when he rolled out of bed—his hair always looked a wreck and his face was puffy.

Jungwoo paused a moment longer to admire the sight.

Jungwoo was in the process of trying to learn Chinese. That didn’t mean he was giving it his best (mostly because he was often distracted by Lucas teaching it to him instead of a tutor with the company), but he was trying. He could say some things, and he understood a bit more. There were times when he tried to eavesdrop on the China line’s conversations, pulling apart their words and making sense of them. Usually he failed, only capturing bits and pieces of phrases that he’d learned over the years.

That day as he stood within earshot of the bathroom door, admiring the broadness of Lucas’s shoulders, the flex of his muscles beneath his skin, and the deepness of his morning voice, Jungwoo caught a phrase whispered from Lucas’s lips for Winwin. He saw the way that Lucas lightly touched the back of Winwin’s neck and the way that Winwin looked up at Lucas in surprise.

“I love you” were the words Jungwoo heard.

Jungwoo remembered how it felt to be on an airplane when it descended. He remembered the uncomfortable pressure, popping and tightness, the bumpiness and bouncing of finally touching down. He remembered rolling nerves curling into a nauseous ball in his stomach, trembling in his throat.

He felt that now. A punch in his chest, a knot in his throat.

Lucas was in love with Winwin.

Everything made sense now. Their constant bickering like all the other couples. Their hushed conversations in Chinese when they were together in their room, leaving Jungwoo out of the secrets. The jealous look Lucas had given them when he saw them playing around in the bed, and the way he’d touched Winwin’s face only moments later. Everything made sense.

Jungwoo felt sick.

\- - -

It was tough being handcuffed to Winwin again after that. As they rode together in a van on their way to the show for the day, Jungwoo couldn’t stop staring at Winwin, trying to see what it was Lucas saw in him. Was it Winwin’s slenderness? His pretty face? He couldn’t stop trying to see the places where Lucas had touched him, as if he’d be able to see finger prints glowing against his skin—on his neck, his arms, his cheeks.

Jungwoo could easily drive himself mad that way, so he forced himself to stop.

He closed his eyes and tilted his forehead against the cool glass.

He hoped that the vibrations of the window would erase all the jealousy and all the stupid romantic feelings out of him, but by the time the van pulled to a stop and members started unloading from vehicles, Jungwoo still felt horrible.

There was no way to fit all eighteen members in one dressing room comfortably, so they split up into two rooms. NCT 127 all went into one, and the others were placed next-door. Jungwoo, still cuffed to Winwin, made himself at home in the 127 dressing room, and after getting hair and makeup done, Ten and Lucas drifted over to join them.

Doyoung swung an arm over Jungwoo’s shoulders. It was uncomfortable considering the way that now the four of them were squeezed onto a small sofa in the dressing room, and declared, “Double date!”

Jungwoo shook his head, “No, it’s not.”

Jungwoo didn’t miss the confused look sent his way by the elder, but he didn’t comment on it either.

Winwin gestured between Lucas, himself, and Jungwoo. His voice took on a whiny quality as he begged, “Hyung, please. We weren’t even arguing badly, just let us go. Jungwoo, aegyo.”

Jungwoo winced at the pinch of the cuffs on his wrist as Winwin gestured at Doyoung. Jungwoo wasn’t in the mood to do aegyo.

Before Doyoung could answer one way or the other, Ten dropped into his lap, easily distracting him with the twist of his fingers against the back of Doyoung’s neck and the gentle slide of his smile. Even Jungwoo found himself a bit dazzled by the couple. No matter how much Doyoung assured Jungwoo that he was still Doyoung’s NCT U bias, Jungwoo knew that Ten definitely had him beat out for that position.

Off on his other side Winwin and Lucas were quietly conversing in Chinese again. The pink color flushing through Winwin’s face and neck indicated that there was some heat behind what they were saying. Jungwoo was glad that his Chinese was bad because he didn’t want to know what was being said, not after earlier that morning. But listening to them speaking to each other had him feeling warm, watching them, looking again for touches and loving looks. He knew it was unhealthy for his heart to watch them like that, so he settled back on the sofa and waited for something—anything to happen.

He looked around the room hoping for a distraction, but all he found was couples: Jaehyun and Taeyong were trying to be subtle with the whispered conversation in the corner that looked more like kissing; Johnny and Yuta were sitting side-by-side on their phones, but the way they kept tilting their screens toward each other and exchanging private smiles reminded Jungwoo that they were a couple now too. Even Mark and Haechan, who both claimed that they weren’t a couple even after their three days cuffed together, were huddled together opposite where Jungwoo sat.

He was all alone in a room full of couples.

Not that Winwin and Lucas were _really_ a couple. A swell of jealousy rolled through him.

“Xuxi,” Jungwoo called.

Lucas immediately looked away from Winwin, the Chinese dying on his lips as he quickly switched back to Korean for Jungwoo. “Yes, hyung?”

He didn’t actually have anything to say, he just wanted to get Lucas’s attention away from Winwin. He felt Doyoung’s gaze on him, waiting to see what was about to happen.

“Xuxi, uh....”

Now several more eyes turned to him.

Doyoung came to the rescue. “Do you want me to uncuff you guys for the show now? Or in a little while?” Doyoung waved the keys.

It felt like freedom, though it was going to be short-lived freedom. Although he was no longer chained to Winwin’s side, Jungwoo didn’t stray far because Lucas didn’t stray far. They still spoke quietly in Chinese, and Jungwoo kept interrupting them with silly little things, just to have Lucas’s attention on him. Maybe it was dumb, but each time Lucas looked at him, Jungwoo felt his body flush with a gentle heat.

Eventually, Winwin got fed up with the interruptions. “Can you go somewhere else?”

Jungwoo would have been offended if he hadn’t known that he was being annoying. He stood and walked away, settling down beside Mark and Haechan who looked at him like he was an alien. He moved over to Jaehyun and Taeyong, who had finally stopped their whisper-kissing.

Taeyong sat in Jaehyun’s lap, wrapped in the younger’s arms, and they watched the room.

“Jealousy is a good color on you, Jungwoo.” Jaehyun laughed, tucking his chin over Taeyong’s shoulder.

“I’m not jealous.”

“Sure, you’re not.” Taeyong looked at him sharply. “None of us are blind, Jungwoo.”

Of course he was jealous. He knew it, apparently everyone else knew it, and Jungwoo was tired of it. He left the room and headed over to the dressing room full of people he (at the moment) liked better. He didn’t see Lucas again until all eighteen of them were heading to the stage, and he tried his best to avoid looking at him throughout the performance. He pushed all thoughts of Lucas and Winwin, handcuffs and love out of his mind and focused on dancing.

After the performance, as NCT streamed off the stage, Jungwoo saw them again.

Winwin and Lucas walked ahead of him, heads tucked together yet again. A jolt of cold shot through his stomach, and Jungwoo charged forward, stepping between them, and he threw his arms around Lucas’s neck, completely cutting Winwin off. Winwin kept walking, but Lucas stopped, so therefore, Jungwoo did as well.

He dropped his arms from Lucas’s neck, and smiled his sweetest smile. “Xuxi, that was great right?”

Lucas only placed a hand on Jungwoo’s hip and lightly pressed him back against the hallway’s wall. “Why’d you do that just now?”

“Do what?” Jungwoo asked innocently.

“Winwin hyung and I were talking. You interrupted us. Again. You’ve been doing that a lot today.” His fingers twitched against Jungwoo’s shirt.

Jungwoo didn’t have an answer ready. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“Why? Are you jealous?” Lucas laughed, pressing harder.

Jungwoo could barely compose an answer, distracted as he was by the weight of Lucas’s hand pinning his hips to the wall. A passing Taeil gave them a strange look. Jungwoo shoved at Lucas, and when he was rewarded with some breathing space, he said, “Of course, I’m not jealous. That’s dumb.” He meant for the words to come out certain, but even to his ears they sounded like a soft dismissal. A clear lie.

Lucas suddenly tangled his fingers in Jungwoo’s hair, and Jungwoo let Lucas direct him until their eyes met. There was something curious in his expression, but for once Jungwoo couldn’t decipher Lucas. He held his gaze for a moment longer, then reached up to untangle Lucas’s fingers from his hair. He stepped away.

“I should go.”

“Going back to Winwin hyung?” Lucas called after him. “Don’t let the cuffs make you think you’re in love with him!”

Jungwoo felt the words pierce his stomach, burst against his heart. Lucas didn’t want him falling in love with Winwin because he was already in love with him. He was jealous of them.

Two could play at the jealousy game. Jungwoo was in it to win.

\- - -

Winwin didn’t like skinship. He made that clear early on, although it didn’t stop the members. To most of them, it came so naturally that they didn’t even realize they were doing it. Jungwoo was one of those people always reaching for whoever was beside him, holding their hands, touching their knees and shoulders, even flirting with them because he was cute and he liked the way it flustered some of them.

He used that to his advantage when it came to making Lucas jealous.

Winwin was used to Jungwoo being this way, so he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary (plus, they were handcuffed together which already put them a bit closer together at all times than either of them really would have liked). Now they even had to share a bed through the night.

Jungwoo used the bed-sharing as an excuse to drape himself over Winwin. He laid his head on Winwin’s chest, threw his leg over Winwin’s, even went so far as to instigate wrestling, which only led to a bumped head and a stinging wrist from the cuffs. But it meant Winwin was touching him, laughing with him, slowly (and obliviously) making Lucas jealous.

Lucas tried to join them, insisting that he wanted to feel included; he would separate them when they curled together, prying their bodies apart so he could fit between them. The one time that Jaehyun walked in to find the three of them crammed together like that, he paused, scoffed, and immediately turned around and walked out.

On one occasion, Lucas and Jungwoo got into a tug-of-war over Winwin, who whined and groaned, and called for Doyoung, begging to be released from torture.

“Doyoung should handcuff you two together.” Winwin told Jungwoo one evening after Lucas stormed off in a rage from Jungwoo being too cuddly, keeping Winwin all to himself. “You’ve got some serious issues to work through.”

“I think we, as a whole group have some issues to work through. We handcuff people together when they argue. That’s not normal.” Jungwoo pointed out.

Winwin laughed.

“That’s true, but you two have that issue of sticking me in the middle of your problems, fighting over me instead of discussing what’s really going on.”

Jungwoo froze. “What?”

Winwin rolled his eyes. “You’re using me to make him jealous. He’s doing the same.”

“He’s using you to make himself jealous, too?” Jungwoo played dumb, hoping to leave the topic behind as soon as possible. “That’s weird. And, hyung, I heard him tell you he loves you, so you don’t have to play anymore.”

Winwin frowned, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“The other day,” Jungwoo gestured toward the door as if Winwin could see into the past through it. “You two were talking, and I heard him tell you he loves you in Chinese.”

Winwin’s eyes went wide. Jungwoo knew that Winwin recognized the moment he was talking about. He shook his head, “You’re so wrong, Jungwoo. You are _so_ wrong about what was happening. He wasn’t telling me he’s in love with me, he was telling me that he couldn’t say it to you.”

“He did what?”

“I am so tired of all the oblivious people in this group. Yuta hyung pined after Johnny hyung for years without Johnny noticing. All it took was them being cuffed together for, like, five minutes. I had to listen to Yuta whine for way too long. And Lucas too. Everyone—“

Jungwoo grabbed Winwin’s face. “Hyung, are you saying Lucas is in love with me?”

Winwin knocked Jungwoo’s hands away. “Yeah, he has been for a long time. How have you not noticed?”

But that was the thing, he had noticed. That’s why he’d gone to look for Lucas that morning. He felt loved by Lucas, he had for years, but just that one moment, those three little words had created enough doubt that he’d eliminated their whole past.

“I know he’s in love with me,” Jungwoo sighed, staring down at their bound hands. “I’d have to be completely senseless to not see the way he looks at me. Like I’m a piece of art or his favorite movie or—“

“His first love.” Winwin interjects.

Jungwoo froze. “Yeah. That too.”

His heart surged in his chest. His fingers tingled.

“You’re both so dumb.” Winwin shifted, his eyes flicked past Jungwoo to the door, and Jungwoo’s heart leapt in his chest. He turned to check the doorway and found Lucas lounging there, looking more shy and nervous than Jungwoo had ever seen him.

“Well, now you know,” Lucas sighed. “I didn’t think you noticed; I didn’t think you even liked me until you started being jealous of Winwin hyung and me.”

Jungwoo, defensive until the end, scoffed. “I wasn’t jealous.”

Lucas walked into the room. “You were totally jealous. But I was jealous too, hyung.” He finally drew close enough to Jungwoo that Jungwoo could smell Lucas’s cologne, and he shuddered when Lucas ran his fingers through Jungwoo’s hair. “Every time he touched you, I wanted to take you away.”

“This is awkward. Do I really have to be here for this?” Winwin groaned, covering his eyes with his arm. Without moving his arm, he shouted, “Hyung! Please let me go. This is so weird!”

Jungwoo laughed, and reached up with his free hand to take Lucas’s wrist, then he slid his fingers through Lucas’s and held on tight.

“Doyoung hyung will let us go. If we tell him about this.”

“Thank God,” Winwin groaned, and he stood up, jerking Jungwoo along behind him, and Lucas followed, tangled in Jungwoo’s fingers and desperate to have him alone.

“Doyoung, Johnny, and Ten just left.” Kun stood in the kitchen, watching the three of them tangled in the hallway. His mouth twisted in amusement. He said something in Chinese, and Lucas giggled, reaching around to cup Jungwoo’s face in his hands. “Great, more romance. They went to that place around the corner.”

 

“You’re free,” Lucas smiled, pushing off the wall.

Jungwoo couldn’t take his eyes off the big, dopey grin. He couldn’t say a word. He walked towards Lucas, silently, quickly, determined.

When he was close enough, he grabbed the sides of Lucas’s hood and pulled him forward. He felt hands gripping at the fabric over his waist, and he heard Lucas’s surprised noise, but Jungwoo didn’t stop. He pushed Lucas back against the wall and tugged at his hood in the same move, until Lucas got the message. He saw the realization, bright in his eyes.

Jungwoo surged forward. Their mouths met.

The air was cold all around them. Jungwoo had left his jacket back at the dorm in his rush, and the cold breeze sliced through his clothes. He shivered closer to Lucas, kissed him deeper, held him closer. He felt Lucas’s fingers tighten in his shirt before sliding loose down to Jungwoo’s butt, pulling his hips forward and squeezing his butt in the same move. Jungwoo laughed into the kiss, sinking into the warmth of the hood, hoping that it blocked out their faces from any people that might be passing by.

They were in public, but Jungwoo didn’t care. It was late, the streets were dark, and Jungwoo had been waiting for this for so long that he couldn’t bring himself to care if anyone saw them or recognized them.

Lucas’s breath clouded in front of his mouth when Jungwoo eventually pulled back. The cold air numbed his fingers, but Lucas took Jungwoo’s hands in his own, clasping them together between their chests. “Are we doing this?” He asked, and he was still smiling. Jungwoo leaned in, unable to resist, and kissed him again.

They were still kissing when the other members came out of the diner, and Ten whistled. Doyoung laughed as did Johnny. Winwin was clearly done with the two of them, and he rolled his eyes, already making plans to ask Kun if he could stay in his room that night and give the two younger men the chance for some alone time.

Lucas slung his arm around Jungwoo’s shoulders, and Jungwoo tilted his head to rest on Lucas’s shoulder. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable way for them to walk back to the dorm, but Jungwoo would be damned before he let go of Lucas any time soon.

\- - -

A week later, Mark and Haechan were cuffed together again, though it didn’t last long. The chain joining the two cuffs snapped in half when they strained too far apart.

Doyoung cried out. The group’s punishment sat in two separate parts, unable to be used anymore. The two younger boys laughed and wrapped their arms around each other, looking like they’d planned it, but refusing to say so. Even so, Doyoung was devastated at the loss of the handcuffs, though he appeared to be the only one.

“Well, I’m surprised it took so long for them to break,” Yuta said from him spot wrapped around Johnny from behind. “They _were_ toy handcuffs, after all. I used them that time I dressed up as a cop.”

Half the room was dumbfounded. Everyone had assumed that Yuta used them for similar reasons as Doyoung and Ten did.

“Why would I use them for sex?” Yuta asked when Renjun voiced what everyone was thinking. “You think I would like not being able to be touched or touch?”

“I can vouch for him definitely being handsy during sex,” Johnny laughed. The room groaned. Defensively, Johnny said, “What? It’s Doyoung and Ten that use the cuffs for sex, everyone kinkshame them, not us.”

“My question,” Winwin stood up in the middle of the room, “is why does everyone think someone is in love with me? Johnny hyung thought Yuta hyung was in love with me. Jungwoo and Lucas both thought each other was in love with me. Is there anyone else?”

Taeil looked at Winwin. “Me? I guess? Kun, too.”

Kun looked shocked at being thrown under the bus by his roommate, but he didn’t deny it.

Jungwoo laid his head on Lucas’s shoulder, watching the chaos of their whole group gathered in one room. Lucas touched Jungwoo’s knee, bare through a tear in his jeans, and the warmth of his touch had Jungwoo’s heart constricting in his chest. He nipped at Lucas’s shoulder and gazed up at him through his eyelashes. Lucas cocked an eyebrow, and when the chaos in the room rose to a new level, they stood and escaped.

Their room was far enough away that the noise of the rest of NCT talking over each other barely made it through the door. Lucas closed it behind them, and Jungwoo moved for the bed.

When Lucas settled down on top of Jungwoo, the weight of him pressing between Jungwoo’s thighs, Jungwoo thought that honestly, there was nowhere else in the world that he would rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> the original summary of this which I thought might be too spoilery: Jungwoo & Winwin get cuffed together, but for once the magic works in a different way—Xuxi gets jealous as heck, Jungwoo gets jealous as heck, Winwin just wants to not be stuck between them.
> 
> honestly this was just an excuse to write about jungwoo. please leave kudos and comments, let me know what you think! are mark and haechan a thing? are taeil, kun, and winwin a thing? do doyoung and ten need to chill on letting the whole group know about their sex life?


End file.
